IMF happy with Zimbabwe reforms, says Chinamasa

The International Monetary Fund mission to Zimbabwe is satisfied with the pace of economic reforms being carried out by Zimbabwe, a government minister has revealed, saying the development could lead to be opening of new lines of credit to finance strategic sectors such as agriculture. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said this at a press conference on Zimbabwe's preparedness to host the African Capacity Building Foundation 25th anniversary in the first week of May in Harare.

Zimbabwe was under a 15-month IMF Staff Monitored Programme to December last year during which the Bretton Woods institution wanted to see government meet set targets in economic management.

"The IMF mission team was in the country in February to March to assess whether we had met our targets – structural and quantitative – for end of December as well as to conduct Article IV consultations," said Minister Chinamasa.

"They came and did those assessments and consultations. Their report is very positive that we met our targets and that we're on course in terms of improving our macro-economic management," he said. "That's what's going to attract investors into the country, that we're sound managers of our economy. They gave us a clean bill of health with respect to targets that we had set for ourselves to meet at the end of December."

Minister Chinamasa said the country had gone beyond the IMF mission's expectations, particularly on activities outside its Staff Monitored Programme. These include evaluation for compensation of farms that the government compulsorily acquired from white farmers under the land reform programme and remapping of land ahead of the issuance of 99-year leases with provisions for collateral.

"As I've always hammered day in and day out, that is, any reforms we carry out aren't for anybody, they're not to please anybody. These are for the interests of our country in order to be good, sound managers," said Minister Chinamasa.

"The IMF board is going to sit on the 2nd of May to receive the report of the mission, which is positive. It's just to receive and not to review or anything else. It's just to receive the report on the targets and Article IV consultations," he said.

"We can't envisage a situation where the board will query the mission with respect to their report. So we're quite optimistic that the report will be received well by the board," said Minister Chinamasa. He said thereafter, the government would start operationalising its debt clearance strategy.

Zimbabwe owes the African Development Bank about $600 million, the World Bank over $1 billion and the International Monetary Fund about $120 million. Minister Chinamasa said they expected the three creditors to consider Zimbabwe's debt clearance strategy by November this year.

"Also, between now and then, we're going to work feverishly to come up with a new financing programme on the basis of which we hope, if we clear our arrears in tandem, as reciprocation, we should get new financing to support those sectors of our economy which we think, if supported, can have a transformative impact on our economic recovery," Minister Chinamasa said.

"Primarily, we're looking at agriculture. We're also looking at private sector growth. We're now going to give impetus to parastatal reform and to build capacity for all that is done by officials from here (Ministry of Finance), and that capacity was built through the assistance of ACBF," he said.